The Maw's Grave

Legend of the Five Rings card from Samurai Edition, Promotional–Samurai

Card Type

Stronghold

Province Strength

7

Gold Production

4

Starting Family Honor

-19

Clan

Unaligned

Card Text

Your Nonhuman Personalities have +1F.
You do not gain or lose Honor; this is not negation.
You may not take Political actions.
Open, w: Bring your target dead Shadowlands Nonhuman Personality into play, ignoring costs. At the end of the turn, remove it from the game.

Legality

Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Pre-Game

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "The Maw’s Grave 7PS 4G –19FH Your Nonhuman Personalities have +1F. You do not gain or lose Honor. You cannot take Political actions. Open: Bow this Stronghold: Bring a target dead Shadowlands Nonhuman Personality you own into play, waiving costs. At the end of the turn, remove it from the game." [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007] Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 162

Rules Q&A

• Q: I play Unaligned Stronghold (like The Maw's Grave) and have 2 Human Personalities (Lion Clan and unaligned Ronin) in play. Will Oath of Fealty give both F/C tokens under IvE rules?
  A: Technically yes.
  Though to editorialize for a moment, for thematic and mechanical purposes, I'd suggest banning Oath of Fealty from Legacy/Big Deck, because the Ivory MRP in no way works properly in those Formats any longer. Besides not taking into account the existence of Unaligned Strongholds per your question, it also now wipes Monk, Naga, Ninja, Ratling, and Spirit off of Personalities! Brook Cunningham, "Oath of Fealty and Unaligned player", 14 Jan 2014
• Q: According to the Oracle of the Void, The Maws Grave is an unaligned stronghold, not Shadowlands. Though it states you cannot gain or lose honor, it technically can still win via honor since nothing about it explicitly states otherwise.
  When playing cards like The Return of Fu Leng that look for clans that are exempt from winning via honor, this stronghold would not fall into that category and can opt out even though it is also Shadowlands.
  Is this an error, or intentional?
  A: No error. The Maw's Grave (as well as The Forgotten Temple, one might note) is a delightful loophole, allowing you to renounce an ability to win by Honor that you DO have, even if your inability to GAIN Honor means you can never practically achieve it. Enjoy!
  That said, I do feel obligated to correct your implicit and explicit assertions above: The Maw's Grave is not, nor has it ever been, a "Shadowlands" or "Shadowlands Horde" Stronghold. Brook Cunningham, "Legacy question: Maws Grave vs Return of Fu Leng", 21 Aug 2013
• Q: Can I target Akuma no Oni Exp 2 with the action from The Maw's Grave while he is dead and in discard?
  A: No.
  http://rules.l5r.com/Card_features#Continuous_traits: "While their card is out of play, continuous traits affect the card they are on(.)" Zen Faulkes, "Akuma no Oni and The Maw's Grave", 11 Apr 2009
• Q: In response to this thread.
  I play my bro in this a lot, and we looked up ther rulebook and found the below text. The answer in the above thread seems to contradict my understanding of the the unaligned definition in the rule book.
  P1 - The player who plays The Maw's Grave has no clan alignment (thereby being considered unaligned). (see Zen Faulke's Post) P2 - Unaligned players do not "have the same clan alignment as an" unaligned personality. (see rulebook definition of unaligned) P3 - Contemplation of Destiny asks "If he does not have his controller's Clan alignment" then the effects carry through. (see card text below) C - A Maw's Grave player will have the second set of effects always trigger on him.
  A maw's grave player (or any unaligned stronghold user) is always vulnerable to the second condition in the Contemplation of Destiny.
  Thanks for your time, this just confused me a bit.
  Relevant Text: Unaligned - A Personality, player, or Stronghold without a Clan alignment. Unaligned Personalities do not have the same Clan alignment as an Unaligned player or Stronghold, nor do they have a different Clan alignment from anything.
  Contemplation of Destiny - Open: Bow another player's target Unique Personality. If he does not have his controller's Clan alignment, permanently remove one of his base abilities or traits (not keywords).
  Zen Faulkes PostIt (being Maw's Grave) has no faction trait to gain, so it would be unaligned (http://rules.l5r.com/Glossary_U#Unaligned).
  Pardon this, I posted this last night in the wrong forums. I just wanted the rule's team to clarify this ruling.
  A: Please see the original ruling for clarification on this. Dan Jacobson, "Contemplation of Destiny & The Maw's Grave", 13 Nov 2008
• Q: If I am a Maws Grave player and I have a Temple of the Righteous Emperor in play. Can I play an action card that has an honor gain on it, use the temple and draw a card. The temple says :
  Reaction: Before a player gains Honor from an Action card during the Attack Phase: Negate the Honor gain. The player draws a card.
  Since the word 'before' is there, I would say that I can, even though my stronghold will not allow me to gain the honor when it actually happens.
  A: "Do not" does not mean that the honour gain is negated, but that it never exists. There is no honour gain to react to.
  See Do not. Alex Jones, "Temple of the Righteous Emperor vs. The Maws Grave", 22 Aug 2008
• Q: (C)an a player using 'The Maw's Grave' pay the honor cost on an action(?)
  A: No. http://rules.l5r.com/Glossary_D#Do_not Zen Faulkes, "The Maw's Grave +", 24 Sep 2007
• Q: If I use the open ability on The Maw's Grave and the limited ability on Seiden Sanzo on the same personality, is the personality still removed from the game at the end of the turn even though he has been destroyed?
  A: Hm. This question was, "Do cards 'remember' things when they've been out of play?" seems to be the FAQ of the day.
  Yes, unless they were also face-down. See http://rules.l5r.com/Effects#Tracking_rule
  (Additional: See also viewtopic.php?f=59&t=62011) Zen Faulkes, "Maw's Grave + Seiden Sanzo", 22 Sep 2007
• Q: (H)ow do honor losses for a Maw's Grave (and perhaps Spider) player function? Are they negated, or do they simply never occur?
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/Glossary_D#Do_not. Latter.
  See also "Dirty Politics" sticky. Zen Faulkes, "The Maw's Grave + Honor Loss", 11 Sep 2007
• Q: Open: Bow Samarhad: Take control of a target Personality without his controller's Clan alignment. Straighten him. At the end of the turn, if he is not Ratling, return control of him to the player you took him from.
  In reference to a stronghold with no clan alignment, does his ability still work?
  Answer is: A) Since no one has that stronghold's clan alignment, Samarhad can steal anyone from The Maw's Grave! B) Player requires a clan alignment. Samarhad can't steal someone who doesn't share something that does not exist!
  A: A. If you don't have a clan alignment, obviously your cards won't be able to match it, and Samarhad takes your people. Chris Fuchs, "Samarhad", 4 Aug 2007
• Q: Is a Maw's Grave player still considered a Shadowlands Horde player for cards that check that (like Monkey Man xp)?
  A: No.
  The Maw's Grave does not have a Mon or any Faction alignment at all. Martin Lund, "The Maw's Grave and Monkey Man xp", 26 Jul 2007
• Q: (I tried the Search function for "portals open", and didn't get any match; looks like the search function is currently down)
  This is mostly for a confirmation, but...
  Does The Portals Open do anything useful for a player whose Stronghold does not have a faction trait? (ie, the Shadowlands under the current rules, and presumably the Maw's Grave under Samurai rules)
  A: No. Shadowlands is not a faction/clan trait. Chris Fuchs, "Portals Open and Shadowlands", 17 Jul 2007
• Q: I see, that makes sense. Do you know why The Forgotten Temple and The Maw's Grave are listed as "unaligned" in oracle instead of "shadowlands"?
  A: Because they're not Shadowlands. That Faction was removed in Samurai Edition. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 21 May 2025